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REF Protection Useful
REF Protection Useful
Restricted earth fault protection is a common protection given for most power
transformers. Better sensitivity and more coverage for the star winding are generally
given as the reasons for providing REF protection even in situations where
differential protection is provided. Through this document we try to explain these
reasons with a numerical example.
Let us take the case of a typical step down transformer, feeding a radial system. The
rating and connection details of the transformer are,
Rating : 5MVA
Ratio : 33/6.6kV
Vector group : Dyn11
Neutral Grounding Resistor : 76.2 Ω
Figure 1 shows the single line diagram of the transformer with the high voltage, low
voltage and neutral currents marked. Under normal load condition the neutral
current IN will be zero.
Let us now consider a single phase to ground fault on the low voltage star winding.
The worst case of single phase to ground fault is when the fault is at the terminal of
the star winding. The transformer leakage impedance is given as 6.73%, which
translates to 6.73%*6.62/5 = 0.586Ω on the 6.6kV side. Compared to the neutral
grounding resistance value of 76.2Ω, we can safely ignore the transformer leakage
impedance in our calculation without introducing much error.
Figure 2 shows the connection diagram for this transformer and the current
distribution for a “C” phase to ground fault on the LV star winding.
Thus the maximum fault current on the low voltage side of the transformer for a
fault at the winding terminal can be calculated as,
V LV / 3 6600 / 3
I f max = = = 50 A
R 76.2
50
I f max_ sec = = 0.1A = 10% I nom (1)
500
Fig. 2: Fault current distribution for “C” phase to ground fault on the star winding
As can be seen from the Figure 2, for a fault in the LV star winding, the fault current
will flow in the faulted LV phase winding to ground and flow back from ground
through the neutral (grounded through the resistor). Thus the neutral current during
this fault will be,
I n = I f max = 50 A
In the HV side this current will reflect in two phases. With Dyn11 vector group the
current will appear in the “A” and “C” phases.
The three phase has its HV winding connected in Delta and LV winding in Star. Thus
to get a voltage ratio of 33/6.6kV, the individual phase turns ratio should be 33/
(6.6/√3)
Therefore the fault current in the phase “A” and “C” on the HV side for a ground fault
on the LV winding will be,
6.6 / 3
I HC = − I HA = I f max ×
33
(2)
6.6 / 3
= 50 × = 5.77 A
33
The maximum fault current will be when x=1, and that value is
5.77
I HC − max = − I HA− max = 0.0577 A = 5.77% I nom (3)
100
Comparing (1) and (3), it can be seen that for the same fault, when measured on
the LV side the current is fault current is 10% of the CT rated current (which will also
be the relay nominal current), whereas when measured on the HV side, the fault
current appears as only 5.77% of rated current of CT (and relay).
When the fault position is anywhere within the winding, the expression for the fault
current can be written as
xV LV / 3
If = = xI f max (4)
R
Where “x” is the per unit fault distance from the neutral. For a terminal fault, x=1
and a fault at the neutral point, x=0.
x6.6 / 3 x6.6 / 3
I HC = − I HA = I f × = xI f max ×
33 33
(5)
6.6 / 3
= x 2 50 × = x 2 5.77 A
33
Varying the value of “x” from 0 to 1, we can find the fault current on the LV and HV
side (for ground faults at different locations on the star winding). The reflected fault
current on the HV side varies as a square of fault position “x”. With value of x being
less than or equal to 1, the reflected current on HV side rapidly diminishes for faults
closer to neutral.
Figure 3 shows the fault current seen by the relay when measured on the LV neutral
and HV phase CT for faults at different positions in the star LV winding. As can be
seen from the comparative graph, for the same fault position, measurement on the
LV side yields more current.
0.08
Current in Amps
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Fault position "x"
Fig. 3: HV and LV fault current for different fault position on the star LV winding
A phase differential relay would measure the difference between the current on the
HV and LV side for each phase individually. For this case there is no current on the
LV phase side, so the differential current seen by the phase differential relay will be
(we will look at the “C” phase element),
Let us take the differential setting in the relay as IS and the slope as m. The effective
required operating current can be calculated as
Ieff-op = IS+m*IBIAS
For the biased differential relay to operate, the measured differential current should
be more than the effective required operating current. That is,
Usually the differential relay pick-up setting is set to 10% or above (0.1A for a 1A
relay). The minimum slope is also typically 20%. Thus we can write Equation (8) as,
Substituting the expression from Equations (6) and (7) in (9) we get,
The above expression can be re-written to find the minimum value of IHC for which
the relay will operate. Thus we get the condition to operate as,
or
From the Figure (3) (and equation 4) we can see that the maximum fault current (for
fault on the LV winding terminal) that flows in the HV side (as seen on the secondary
of the HV CT) is only 0.0577A. This means that the phase differential relay does not
provide any protection for the LV winding ground faults.
Reducing the pick-up setting or slope is not an option as they are governed by the
phase current mismatches, CT error and spill due to OLTCs.
The REF relay would measure the difference between the residual current measured
on the LV phase side and the LV neutral current. Again as the LV side phase currents
are absent for this case, the differential current seen by the REF relay will be,
The REF relay has a fixed threshold setting and the relay will operate when the
differential current flowing through it exceeds the setting.
Let us say that for the present example the LV REF relay was set to 5% (which would
translate to 0.05A). For this REF relay to operate the differential current should
exceed 0.05A.
In the present example, the LV side fault current will be more than 0.05A for faults
beyond 50% of the winding (refer Figure 3, for LV current of 0.05A the
corresponding value of “x” is 0.5).
Summary
This analysis brings out the importance of REF protection for a transformer. This also
shows how a biased differential relay can at times not provide any protection against
LV earthfaults.